How is distance in open water events measured?

I'm sure this has been asked before many times, but being relatively new to the sport, I was just curious to know. I did two triathlons this year: the first one my time was about 26 minutes, the second about 27 minutes - and the timing mat was immediately after the lake exit on both points.

Now of course I could have got slower, but assuming my fitness / peformance was more or less similar, the only other variable is the length of the swim. 

So how are these things measured - and is there an official accuracy - i.e. plus/minus 5 % ?

 

 

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